WhatsApp it's the biggest messaging platform in the world, without a doubt, but if you use it constantly, it's very important to know about this last-minute warning that affects hundreds of millions of people. A few weeks ago I told you that there is a method to completely block the WhatsApp application on iPhones, sometimes they restart due to errors generated by exploiting a series of imperfectly written code in the application.
WhatsApp did not recognize, at the time of publication of this problem, that it would be so serious that he would try to solve it, but in the most recent version of the application he fixed this, without saying this in the list of changes. The latest version of the WhatsApp app for iPhone includes a change designed to check vCards sent by other people to see if they contain lines of code that could block the app.
WhatsApp: LAST HOUR WARNING to MILLIONS of People
WhatsApp it allows users to send vCards to other people, i.e. complete information about the contacts in their phones, and some of these cards can include malicious code that blocks applications. It seems that WhatsApp has finally understood how serious is the problem faced by users who use its application, so in the end it has taken the decision to block the possibility of exploiting it through the vCards that anyone can send them.
NEW: Recent WhatsApp for iOS updates now include some checks for vCard size validation, to reduce several malicious contact cards that crash WhatsApp. https://t.co/gTrTRAOfCk
- WABetaInfo (@WABetaInfo) November 21, 2020
WhatsApp probably tried to keep this modification hidden so as not to give those using the exploit the opportunity to quickly modify it to attack other people using other malicious codes. Now that everything has been revealed, it is good to know that the problem has been solved, but we can expect similar ones to appear since the application is so vulnerable to attacks of this kind, so we have to be very careful, in the end .
WhatsApp regularly implements updates designed to protect its users, so we will definitely see other similar implementations, especially if such serious exploits will also appear.
